Adriaan Vlok applies for presidential pardon

Former law and order minister Adriaan Vlok and four others have applied for a presidential pardon for the attempted murder of Reverend Frank Chikane, the Star reported on Tuesday.

Vlok, former apartheid police chief Johann van der Merwe, former police Major General Chris Smit and former colonels Gert Otto and Manie van Staden have applied for the pardon, their lawyer, Jan Wagenaar, told the newspaper.

Last year the men struck a plea bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority for the attempted murder of Chikane, now Director General in the Presidency.

Wagenaar said the suspended sentences they were given for putting poison in Chikane’s clothes in 1989 now made travelling to certain countries difficult for them.

“Wagenaar said a pardon would be nice as it would allow the men to travel freely,” reported the Star.

A multiparty reference group of members of Parliament has been tasked with evaluating 2 300 applications for presidential pardons from political prisoners who did not participate in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and who committed offences before June 16 1999.—Sapa